So John Terry is a rather nasty piece of work. We sort of already knew that didn’t we?. He may have crossed a line in his alleged betrayal of not just his wife and kids, but crucially (since we’re talking about football here) his teammate, but that isn’t the main reason why he should step down as captain of the England national team. The identity of the last of those victims is a legitimate reason itself, but it isn’t the be all and end all. What should end all however, it’s what all will be.

There is likely to be an almighty storm in the coming months as the media go into campaign overdrive and pretend once again that they are the sole bastion of all that is morally good and proper in the baron wasteland of broken Britain. The ‘Terry Out!’ Campaign has only just begun. It will run for months and months. Even if the serial campaign whores like The Daily Mail don’t get in on the act, the injunction Terry attempted to put out on the News of The Screws will ensure they, at least, will be going for the jugular until England step out to the sound of 40 thousand horrible plastic horns against the USA on June 12th. Fans and cab drivers across the land, those with Chelsea allegiance aside, will, at worst, join the mob and rant like their lives depend on it on the terraces and message boards of merry England until their voices fail and their fingers bleed, and, at best, feel slightly uncomfortable that a man with so much red biro scribbled in the margins of his reputation has the possibility of being enshrined in English folklore forever more a la Bobby Moore should England achieve the holy grail come July.

So it is for this reason that Terry must resign his captaincy of England. Because regardless of how suitable a leader, how insignificant his private life or Wayne Bridge’s role in South Africa may be, not doing so would be the most damaging of the options that now face Fabio Capello, The FA and the England football team.

Scenario A plays out like this. Terry keeps the captaincy. A few Guardian journalists welcome the news but the tabloids and certain broadsheet editorial writers go ballistic. The fans do to, well most fans at any rate. The more opinionated ones speak out at every opportunity. Cab rides from airports become unbearable and all late night pub conversations switch from remembering children’s TV shows of the 70s and 80s to philosophical postulating on the moral obligations of the England captaincy. Every bad performance is seized upon. Politicians are asked to chip in, and gladly oblige thankful of the chance to seem clued up on football matters. Worst-case scenario sees a Wembley booing of the Ashley Cole variety. Wayne Bridge, his humiliation compounded by the inevitable witty terrace chant, destined to remain his theme song for years to come,  declares he can never play in the same team as Terry again. Some factions within the England team find this the last straw and divisions form within the camp. England face the prospect of going into the first World Cup in donkeys years they actually have a chance of winning with, at best, a tabloid tornado at their door, a captain hated by the majority of fans and one directly responsible for the weakening of the squad prospects and, at worst, all that plus a divided and emotional camp, sealed in an enclosed and humid environment miles from home. Some of these scenarios will not play out, but some inevitably will. The smell from this will linger no matter how hard Capello tries to fan it away.

Scenario B plays out like this. Terry resigns the captaincy. A few Times journalists praise this decision as noble and befitting of a leader while the redtops recline comfortably in their ergonomic swivel chairs and congratulate themselves on single handedly restoring morality to the western world. The fans are placated, unwilling to lose Terry from the team, but with their moral indignation satisfied by his diminished role and public comeuppance. Any possible unrest in the England team is similarly quelled as the bad man has been horse whipped, but is still on their side. Even Wayne Bridge may feel supported enough to return to the team, if he’s needed, in the knowledge that the man who betrayed him has lost something precious to him as a consequence. England retain Terry as an influential figure on the pitch, unlikely to suddenly lose all his abilities, but regain the trust and ease of the supporters, affiliates and sponsors by having another, less disgraced (well less at least) ambassadorial captain as it’s figurehead. England go into the World Cup with a calmed media, a satisfied fan base and no derogatory impact on the team what so ever.

Scenario B is the most preferable, and the most sensible surely?

Terry could be stripped of the captaincy forcibly and much the same would be achieved. Again I doubt it would affect his form too much, and I’m hardly enamored enough with the man to care if it upsets him slightly. However from his perspective resignation would at least give him the chance to seem like it was his decision. He would come across like a man who would put the benefits of his team in front of his own and would open the door to a future Beckham like redemption. I don’t particularly care for that myself, but if Terry still has any advisors around him they’d be wise to awaken him to that possibility.

While I don’t care to comment on the allegations themselves, as at this point they are just that, the already clear basics of them cannot be brushed away by the notion that Terry is an irreplaceable figure as captain. In fact that argument seems to have been mythically resurrected purely to serve as a rebuttal to the emotional outpouring of righteous preaching that has accompanied these revelations. We shouldn’t forget that it was only 5 months ago that Capello decided to stick with him as captain. At the time it was all still very much up in the air with Rio Ferdinand quite a strong contender to take the arm band off him in the new season. Both Steven Gerrard and, weirdly, Gareth Barry were also considered possible successors. In fact when he was re-confirmed, there were many who felt it was the wrong decision, even reportedly within the FA, so the notion of Terry as the only possible choice for captain, or the idea that the team would fall apart without his arm banded leadership is complete fallacy. The only real question is whether Capello feels it will seriously affect Terry’s mentality to be deprived of something he loves so dearly. And if that is really the case then we must consider whether a) that’s a trait that’s actually acceptable in a captain material player and b) whether he should have thought about that before he messed with some of the other things he supposedly loved so dearly and who loved him dearly in return. So every which way you look at it, even disregarding the notion of a captain who betrays his own teammates, the argument for Terry keeping the armband seems less preferable to him losing it.

We all have out own opinions on it. That’s one of the funfortunate side affects of national gossip. But in mine, Terry needs to resign, take the bullet, and for once in his public life, act like a real man. His private life may have no effect on his ability to lead, but it will have an affect on his team. And the best thing for the team would be for Terry to be out of the spotlight for a while. As weird as it may seem to him right now, he has more to gain from resigning his position than he does from keeping it.